India becomes hot news

WHEN Indians sit down to watch the television news in the
evening, they can choose from 34 channels  that's more news
channels than any other country in the world.

With the launch of two new television news channels in the past
two months, the Indian media business looks even more radiant than
ever.

It offers a Dorian Gray contrast with the gnarled, liver-spotted
creature in the West, sickening by the day from poor circulation
and an alarmingly low advertising count.

The commercial capital, Mumbai, alone saw three new newspapers
last year  Mumbai Mirror, DNA and a local
edition of The Hindustan Times.

And a national readership survey showed that between 2003-05,
over 21 million new readers joined the 179 million Indians who read
a paper every day  a rise of 14 per cent.

The potential of this market is mind-boggling. So much of it is
still unexplored. There were millions of Indians who in future
would read a paper and get a cable connection, said Dr Bhaskar Rao,
chairman of the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.

The reasons for the boom are growing literacy and higher levels
of disposable income. Literacy has improved by about 20 per cent
over the past few years and Indians are hungry for information.

If you group India's 5000 newspapers by size, editors in the
West would die of envy. There are a dozen giant newspapers that
sell more than a million copies each. That means a combined
circulation of 16-17 million.

Advertising revenues are good. India's average growth rate of
about 7 per cent over the past decade has meant an explosion in
consumer spending. This, in turn, has triggered huge increases in
the advertising budgets of the private sector. Figures from TAM
Media Research show spending on advertising in 2004 was $US1.16
billion ($A1.57 billion). In 2005, this rose by 14 per cent to
$US1.32 billion. TV makes up 41 per cent of the ad market. Print
makes up 48 per cent.

For TV news, Indians are spoilt for choice. The only problem is
a certain much of a muchness about them. They all try to be
different but look and sound remarkably similar.

Overexcited anchors gabble away as though viewers will flick
them off the screen if they so much as pause for breath. Every
trifling story is a breaking story. Every interview is exclusive,
even if it's an insipid remark by someone of little
consequence.

Fierce competition for viewers has also dumbed down content.
With an increasingly tabloid agenda, the marital problems of
Bollywood couples are reported as news. And sting operations to
expose corrupt politicians are becoming the preferred way to create
a sensation. But the news channels can also be superb on occasion.
When bird flu arrived in western India last week, some channels
covered it accurately and matter-of-factly.

One of them was CNN-IBN, a tie-up between CNN and an Indian
company, TV-18. Western media groups, facing stagnation at home,
are interested in investing in what is probably the world's last
great newspaper market.

But until 2002, no foreign investment was permitted in the
Indian media. When the policy was finally relaxed, a cap of 26 per
cent was set to protect the domestic industry and the national
interest.

While restrictive, the policy has at least allowed some tie-ups.
Another just-launched news channel is Times Now, a
collaboration between the Times newspaper group and Reuters.
In 2004, Pearson plc's Financial Times paid $US3 million for
nearly 14 per cent of Business Standard, the No. 2 business
daily in India.

Last June, another barrier was removed when the Government
allowed foreign newspapers such as the International Herald
Tribune to publish in India.

But there was a catch. Newspapers can only sell international
editions and cannot sell issues with local content or advertising,
because that would threaten Indian publications.

Opponents of the 26 per cent cap say that Indian media barons
are scared of the competition that foreign papers would present.
Indian media giants invariably cloak their opposition in patriotic
terms.

Such a powerful institution as the media, they argue, cannot be
controlled by foreigners, who might propagate ideas and stories
that damage Indian interests.

Some analysts believe that eventually pressure from the outside
world may compel lawmakers to ease these restrictions. But it's not
going to be anytime soon.